"All I'd ever wanted was to forget. But even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below. A pink shirt, a rhyme with my name, the feeling of hands on my neck. Because that is what happens when you try to run from the past. It doesn't just catch up: it overtakes, blotting out the future, the landscape, the very sky, until there is no path left except that which leads throught it, the only one that can ever get you home."
[page 340]


This passage is really important to the book because I think this was sort of Annabel's realization point. It was towards the end, so the book was starting to tie up the loose ends. Annabel had been trying to hide her secret since it happened. She always thought it would slowly just fade away in her mind - just become a part of her past. But lately it's been brought back up in everyone's minds. Annabel then realized that she needed to do something about it. She needed to tell someone the truth or else she could never have another happy day in her life.

I chose this passage because I think Sarah Dessen's simile is so true. People always think that they can just cover something up and get away with it or just forget about it. But they can't. No matter what you did or what happens to you, if you don't tell anyone it'll just eat you up inside until you can't take it anymore.



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